Working-K9: January 2011 Posts

Monday, January 24, 2011
She's got rocks

My little underling, Isis, is a strange dog. Granted all puppies are strange, each tend to have their own little personality quirks. It's part of their charm, or so I'm told. Most just do normal puppy stuff however. They steal shoes, chew up pillows, pee in the corner, or dig holes in the yard.

Ok so Isis does some typical puppy stuff, the digging at least, and she will occasionally steal stuff to chew on but her main quirk is her fascination with rocks. Not the ordinary little rocks that make up most of my humans landscape either. Though in a pinch she will bring them inside too, she really prefers the big smooth river type rocks.

I'm not sure why we have so many large smooth stones buried in the RV area of the back yard but apparently we have lots and Isis loves them. She'll dig them up, lick them clean and shiny then bring them indoors. Many end up adorning the interior of her kennel, others she places strategically around the house making sure they are in the most inconvenient place possible for my human.

Now these rocks aren't just pretty, cleaned and smooth; many are also quite large. Very large. So large they are hard for Isis to grip and carry in her rather large mouth. Needless to say many get dropped as she's currying them from room to room and the clank clank clank sound they make as they bounce and skid across the tile always makes me flinch a little. Someday she's gonna break one of the tiles, I just know it.

Now my human has tried to break her of this little obsession to no avail. The nylabones, kong and various other toys hold little interest to Isis. She likes her rocks. She's even recently brought in a chunk of cement that was once a paving stone in my humans little sidewalk in the backyard.

So it's become a daily ritual around here. Each night my human tosses out most of the rocks and cement chunk, each morning Isis starts bringing them all back in one at a time. At least it keeps her busy for awhile.

Sunday, January 09, 2011
Girls Girls Girls

These past few months have been busy with an explosion in the female population of this family. First, my humans' cousin had a baby girl and named her Jessica. This brings another second cousin into my humans' ever expanding family.

Then my humans' aunt had a baby girl, Aria, in December adding one more female among the ranks of first cousin. For those of you that know the family, you know a male child is much needed but honestly my human likes the fact that the entire family is 99.9% girl power.

To continue this estrogen adding campaign, I got a new little sister in November. You, like myself, would probably expect it to be a golden retriever but she's not. She is a German Shepherd dog. She has AKC registered and has a great AKC registered lineage. Her predecessors are not only champions in the show ring, but also champions in obedience and agility.

My human calls her Isis. For the time being she also refers to her as "little one", but we all know she won't stay little for long. In the month and a half she's been here she's outgrown her first two collars and gained about 20 pounds. At first she could walk under me without any difficulty, now she has to duck, soon shall be as tall as I am. Not long after that I told she will likely grow larger than me.

I must admit she is a pretty little dog even with those ginormous ears and paws. When she first came home she was a very shy timorous little beast, but coming out of her shell.

My human plans to train her as a service dog so I can retire someday. Naturally, I want to do all that I can to help her with the training. While my human is working on Sit, Stay, Down and Wait; I decided to show her some more advanced maneuvers such as opening doors. I thought I was doing a great service, how was I to know that the puppy would use it to her advantage to break into the pantry and helped herself to dog food at all hours of the day and night. Te he he he.

It didn't take long for Isis to start stealing shoes and other items around the house. Or learn to unroll the toilet paper to get to the chewy cardboard center. Or learn to steel snacks off the kitchen table when my human turned her back. Yes, I secretly I enjoy all this a little too much; because the more trouble she gets in to, the more perfect I seem to be.

Unfortunately my human is no fool and has discovered my evil plot. My human is learning to better control Isis's behavior, and Isis is learning to listen better to my human. I knew it would happen eventually, and my days of my self-glorification are numbered, but it was fun while it lasted.

In the meantime I have enjoyed having this big eared beastie as a little sister. I am also enjoying the extra treats that I get while demonstrating tricks and behaviors for Isis.